When exploring UI solutions, use a tool like Magic Patterns and its "Inspiration Mode" to generate multiple, distinct design approaches from a single prompt. By asking the AI to "think expansively and make each option differentiated," product managers can quickly explore a wide solution space and avoid getting stuck on a single initial idea.
To rapidly iterate on mobile UI, Lynn sketches screens on physical index cards, which have a similar aspect ratio to a phone. He then photographs these low-fidelity mockups and uses GPT-4's image generation to "upscale" them into high-fidelity designs, bridging the gap between physical brainstorming and digital prototyping tools like Figma.
Historically, resource-intensive prototyping (requiring designers and tools like Figma) was reserved for major features. AI tools reduce prototype creation time to minutes, allowing PMs to de-risk even minor features with user testing and solution discovery, improving the entire product's success rate.
Instead of writing detailed specs, product teams at Google use AI Studio to build functional prototypes. They provide a screenshot of an existing UI and prompt the AI to clone it while adding new features, dramatically accelerating the product exploration and innovation cycle.
Instead of providing a vague functional description, feed prototyping AIs a detailed JSON data model first. This separates data from UI generation, forcing the AI to build a more realistic and higher-quality experience around concrete data, avoiding ambiguity and poor assumptions.
AI tools that generate functional UIs from prompts are eliminating the 'language barrier' between marketing, design, and engineering teams. Marketers can now create visual prototypes of what they want instead of writing ambiguous text-based briefs, ensuring alignment and drastically reducing development cycles.
Leverage AI as an idea generator rather than a final execution tool. By prompting for multiple "vastly different" options—like hover effects—you can review a range of possibilities, select a promising direction, and then iterate, effectively using AI to explore your own taste.
AI coding tools generate functional but often generic designs. The key to creating a beautiful, personalized application is for the human to act as a creative director. This involves rejecting default outputs, finding specific aesthetic inspirations, and guiding the AI to implement a curated human vision.
AI tools can drastically increase the volume of initial creative explorations, moving from 3 directions to 10 or more. The designer's role then shifts from pure creation to expert curation, using their taste to edit AI outputs into winning concepts.
In the rapidly evolving AI landscape where ideas are quickly commoditized, the most valuable trait for a product manager is not having one great idea, but possessing the creative skill to generate many good ideas consistently. This creative muscle is more important than being attached to a single concept.
Treat generative AI not as a single assistant, but as an army. When prototyping or brainstorming, open several different AI tools in parallel windows with similar prompts. This allows you to juggle and cross-pollinate ideas, effectively 'riffing' with multiple assistants at once to accelerate creative output and overcome latency.